Edithcolea grandis

[Herts Mike]

Stapeliad buds do have a habit of aborting but not at this size.

Amazing that you have a bud on such a small plant.

[BCS]

Thanks Mike. I've had buds abort before on my other stapeliads, but like you said usually at the more mid-stage of developing. I found that it was from underwatering and the more water I give them when they're showing signs of growth or flowers, the better the chance to see the actual flowers.

I have some Rhytidocaulon that have 6-10 flowers on them at a time now that they're on heat mats and getting more water. I used to be lucky if I saw one flower.

Hopefully this Edithcolea keeps growing well and I get to see it flower. I was surprised it even had a flower bud at this size too.

[Herts Mike]

Ah, Rhytidocaulon. Grown them, flowered them, lost them.

[BCS]

Sorry to hear Mike. Mine seem to respond well to as much heat as I can give them. They began flowering like crazy when I put them on a heat mat that kept the inside of their pots at around 84-88 degrees F which I was sure would kill them, but they started growing longer arms and flowering like crazy

[Herts Mike]

Yup. Heat is the key. My propagator is home to Edithcolea, Desmidorchis and Tavaresia which all look very happy.

[BCS]

Nice, have you ever measured the soil temp on your edithcolea? I'm curious if you might have it even hotter than mine to get it to flower.

[Herts Mike]

It's just a year old seedling with propagator set at 18c.

[BCS]

Mike, good to know. I hope it does well for you and you can see one of the flowers. Even thought my flower bud failed, it was still pretty impressive to see just the bud develop. it was much bigger than I expected for my small plant, really strange colors and patterns even on the outside.

[Tina]

Has anyone grown Edithcolea in a hanging basket ?, I was wondering if this would be better/easier as you could place it in full sun at the front of the greenhouse, it should be hotter at the top and my plants have been a bit messy with their growth.
I'm back to lots of cuttings again, I can't keep this growing once it's out of a 4" pot but I really want to flower one before I give up on them.

[Herts Mike]

I've never had it big enough for a hanging basket. It usually departs well before that size!